Triangle
Musique

The first surprise with Triangle Musique is how little it behaves like a conventional compilation. This promotional CD from French loudspeaker manufacturer Triangle Electroacoustique dates from 2003 and contains 23 tracks in just over 70 minutes, but the musical choices are far more interesting than the words “demonstration disc” might suggest. Jazz, classical music, vocals, percussion and deliberately difficult test sounds sit next to each other, with artists including John Surman, Michel Portal, Archie Shepp, Horace Parlan, Anne Sofie von Otter, Jordi Savall, Shirley Horn, Jeanne Lee and Terje Rypdal. Clearly Triangle wanted material that could show what a loudspeaker was doing, but thankfully they did not forget that people buy loudspeakers to listen to music. For me, that distinction makes this compilation worth hearing beyond its original purpose.

Music chosen with a purpose

The opening track immediately tells me what Triangle had in mind. John Surman’s “Portrait of a Romantic” comes from his 1988 ECM album Private City, recorded at Rainbow Studio in Oslo in December 1987. Surman plays bass clarinet, recorders, soprano and baritone saxophones and synthesizer, and the original album was produced by Manfred Eicher together with Surman. It is a clever choice because the track does not need spectacular volume or huge bass to hold my attention. Instead, I hear the character of the wind instruments, the space surrounding them and the way the electronic background sits behind rather than on top of the acoustic sounds. On a transparent system, those layers are easy to follow, and that makes it useful reference music without turning it into a technical exercise.

Michel Portal takes the compilation in another direction with a selection from Dockings, his adventurous late-1990s Label Bleu recording. The musicians involved in those sessions included pianist Bojan Zulfikarpasic, bassist Bruno Chevillon, electric bassist Steve Swallow, drummer Joey Baron and trumpeter Markus Stockhausen. Portal himself moves between clarinets, alto saxophone and bandoneon, and that variety is exactly the kind of material that exposes differences in tone and dynamics. I like the fact that Triangle did not simply select polished vocal jazz and safe acoustic recordings. There is tension and movement here, and a system has to keep individual instruments understandable when the music becomes busier.

One of my favourite choices is “When Things Go Wrong” by Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan. The original performance comes from their 1980 Trouble in Mind sessions, recorded at Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, with Shepp on saxophone and Parlan at the piano. This is a wonderfully simple combination for judging a system because there is nowhere for either musician to hide. I listen to the body and breath of Shepp’s saxophone as much as the notes themselves, while Parlan’s piano should have weight without becoming hard or oversized. More importantly, the conversation between the two musicians remains the reason to listen. When a system gets that relationship right, I stop analysing the recording and start following the performance.

From a quiet voice to full orchestra

The classical selections widen the scale considerably. Anne Sofie von Otter singing Mozart’s “Voi che sapete” gives the midrange a completely different job. A voice like hers quickly tells me whether a system is pushing presence too far forward or smoothing away the small changes in expression that make a classical vocal performance believable. Triangle also included Verdi conducted by Riccardo Chailly, a much larger and more demanding sound. When the orchestra opens up, brass, strings and percussion need room to expand without the upper frequencies becoming aggressive or the centre of the stereo image collapsing. That contrast between an individual voice and a large orchestra is exactly what I want from a serious listening compilation.

Then there is “The Man You Were” by Shirley Horn, taken from her 1997 Verve album Loving You. Horn recorded the album with musicians including George Mesterhazy, Steve Novosel, Steve Williams and percussionist Alex Acuña, and this track provides a very different kind of test. Horn never needs to force her voice to command attention. I listen to her phrasing, the space between words and the relationship between voice, piano and bass. The bass reaches surprisingly deep and can become thick on a system that is not well controlled, but I do not want it stripped of warmth either. Get that balance right and the track sounds relaxed, intimate and completely natural.

That variety is the real strength of Triangle Musique. The compilation can move from jazz intimacy to orchestral power and then to Jordi Savall, Jeanne Lee with Mal Waldron, Gianmaria Testa, Terje Rypdal and other very different musical textures. Near the end, Triangle becomes more explicit about the disc’s demonstration purpose with short test recordings such as a garage door, a bell and broken glass. I understand why they are there, and they can certainly reveal transient response, decay and spatial information, but these are the parts I find least interesting. They tell me something about a system, but they do not tell me why I would want to sit in front of that system for an evening.

A demonstration disc I can actually enjoy

That is ultimately why I rate Triangle Musique more highly than many manufacturer demonstration CDs. Triangle was founded in France in 1980 and built its reputation around loudspeakers, so naturally this promotional release was assembled to expose differences in reproduction. Yet the strongest selections do that through real music rather than exaggerated audiophile effects. Surman’s carefully layered instruments reveal stereo imaging and depth, Shepp and Parlan expose tonal character and timing, Shirley Horn tests bass control and vocal realism, while the classical material asks much more from dynamics and scale. These are useful qualities when evaluating speakers, headphones, amplifiers or DACs, but I never need to forget the performance and listen only for sonic tricks.

For me, Triangle Musique succeeds because its best tracks work in two ways at once. They are revealing enough to show whether a system can separate instruments, reproduce a believable voice, control low frequencies and handle a large dynamic change, but they are also recordings I can enjoy without making notes about soundstage or frequency balance. The final test effects are interesting curiosities, yet John Surman, Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan, Shirley Horn and the carefully chosen classical performances are what give the disc its real value. Triangle could have produced nothing more than a showroom tool for selling loudspeakers. Instead, it produced a varied and genuinely useful collection of music, and that musical judgement is what I value most here.

HiFi’ve, Ronald – Your EarFluencer